Jimmy Albans delighted with Belper Town’s improvement

Joe Malone

Belper Town boss Jimmy Albans believes his side are starting to show the form needed to compete.

The Nailers drew their final away game of the season 2-2 against Marine FC thanks to goals from Evan Garnett and Jonathan Williams.

Rob Stevenson, right, has played a key role in the improvement. Pic by Tim Harrison

And Albans feels his side have shown enough in recent weeks to suggest they’re good enough to compete in this league, despite already being relegated to Division One.

“First and foremost it was certainly a deserved draw, and we probably should have gone on and nicked it in the end as I thought we were the better side for long periods today,” he said.

“We’ve said for a few weeks now that we’ve started Rob Stevenson as an orthodox left hand side midfield player, but as the game has gone on we’ve tried to get him more advanced up the field.

“There is one thing in football you can’t defend against, and that’s pace.

“With Paul Grimes, Evan Garnett and Rob Stevenson running at you, as long as we get the ball in to the right areas, it’s very difficult to defend against.”

Marine were fortunate to see their second goal stand as the goalscorer collected the ball in an offside position, and Albans claims the officials are making too many basic errors in the game.

“To be fair I don’t want to harp on about referees, but there are some very, very simple decisions that in my opinion officials are getting wrong.”

The Nailers’ final game of the season comes at home to Trafford FC in a battle to ensure they don’t finish at the bottom of the table, with Albans excited at the prospect of the game.

“We look forward to it. We’ve looked forward to every game now for quite a while,” he added.

“I think we were disciplined against Marine, we worked very hard off the ball, and that work rate off the ball is getting better and better, so it’s a shame the season is coming to an end as we’re building a decent run now.

“We don’t have any players injured and we’re not getting players suspended like Phil Watt and Laurie Wilson were, which meant they missed two games each, and you can see now the consistency in what we’re trying to do.”

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